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At least 1,621 records · Page 90

Applications of remote sensing to stream discharge predictions

A feasibility study has been initiated on the use of remote earth observations for augmenting stream discharge prediction for the design and/or operation of major reservoir systems, pumping systems and irrigation systems. The near-term objectives are the interpolation of sparsely instrumented precipitation surveillance networks and the direct measurement of water loss by evaporation. The first steps of the study covered a survey of existing reservoir systems, stream discharge prediction methods, gage networks and the development of a self-adaptive variation of the Kentucky Watershed model, SNOPSET, that includes snowmelt. As a result of these studies, a special three channel scanner is being built for a small aircraft, which should provide snow, temperature and water vapor maps for the spatial and temporal interpolation of stream gages.

Krause, F. R.↗

Modeling of thin-film GaAs growth

A solid Monte Carlo model is constructed for the simulation of crystal growth. The model assumes thermally accommodated adatoms impinge upon the surface during a delta time interval. The surface adatoms are assigned a random energy from a Boltzmann distribution, and this energy determines whether the adatoms evaporate, migrate, or remain stationary during the delta time interval. For each addition or migration of an adatom, potential wells are adjusted to reflect the absorption, migration, or desorption potential changes.

Heinbockel, J. H.↗

A CO2-rich coma model applied to the neutral coma of Comet West

Models of the cometary coma in which the dominant volatile is CO2 have been constructed for a range of heliocentric distances. Model coma abundances of C2, C3, and CN are compared with the abundances observed in Comet West and are found to be in good agreement. Furthermore, the variation with heliocentric distance of C2, C3, and CN model abundances agree well with the observed variation in Comet West. The present work lends detailed support to a previous suggestion that a substance more volatile than water, such as CO2, controls the evaporation of the nucleus of Comet West. The implications for cometary formation are briefly discussed.

Mitchell, G. F.↗

Millimeter wave transmission studies of YBa2Cu3O7-delta thin films in the 26.5 to 40.0 GHz frequency range

Millimeter wave transmission measurements through YBa2Cu3O(7-delta) thin films on MgO, ZrO2 and LaAlO3 substrates, are reported. The films (approx. 1 micron) were deposited by sequential evaporation and laser ablation techniques. Transition temperatures T sub c, ranging from 89.7 K for the Laser Ablated film on LaAlO3 to approximately 72 K for the sequentially evaporated film on MgO, were obtained. The values of the real and imaginary parts of the complex conductivity, sigma 1 and sigma 2, are obtained from the transmission data, assuming a two fluid model. The BCS approach is used to calculate values for an effective energy gap from the obtained values of sigma sub 1. A range of gap values from 2 DELTA o/K sub B T sub c = 4.19 to 4.35 was obtained. The magnetic penetration depth is evaluated from the deduced values of sigma 2. These results are discussed together with the frequency dependence of the normalized transmission amplitude, P/P sub c, below and above T sub c.

Miranda, F. A.↗

Positrons from quantum evaporation of primordial black-holes

The unconfirmed prediction of quantum evaporation of primordial black holes (PBHs) is considered together with the related unanswered questions of whether PBHs ever existed and whether any could still exist. The behavior of the positrons from PHBs is modeled in relation to three facts. Firstly, the integrated emitted number spectrum of positrons is six to eight times larger than that of photons. Secondly, positrons emitted from PBHs lose energy and annihilate, producing a prominent line at 511 keV which is redshifted by the expansion of the universe. Thirdly, these photons may be detectable in the X-ray and low gamma ray energy ranges. The model predicts a flux which is significantly inferior to the instrument sensitivities of the foreseeable future.

Durouchoux, P.↗

The Tethered Moon

A reasonable initial condition on Earth after the Moonforming impact is that it begins as a hot global magma ocean1,2. We therefore begin our study with the mantle as a liquid ocean with a surface temperature on the order of 3000- 4000 K at a time some 100-1000 years after the impact, by which point we can hope that early transients have settled down. A 2nd initial condition is a substantial atmosphere, 100-1000 bars of H2O and CO2, supplemented by smaller amounts of CO, H2, N2, various sulfur-containing gases, and a suite of geochemical volatiles evaporated from the magma. Third, we start the Moon with its current mass at the relevant Roche limit. The 4th initial condition is the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system. Canonical models hold this constant, whilst some recent models begin with considerably more angular momentum than is present today. Here we present a ruthlessly simplified model of Earth's cooling magmasphere based on a full-featured atmosphere and including tidal heating by the newborn Moon. Thermal blanketing by H2O-CO2 atmospheres slows cooling of a magma ocean. Geochemical volatiles - chiefly S, Na, and Cl - raise the opacity of the magma ocean's atmosphere and slow cooling still more. We assume a uniform mantle with a single internal (potential) temperature and a global viscosity. The important "freezing point" is the sharp rheological transition between a fluid carrying suspended crystals and a solid matrix through which fluids percolate. Most tidal heating takes place at this "freezing point" in a gel that is both pliable and viscous. Parameterized convection links the cooling rate to the temperature and heat generation inside the Earth. Tidal heating is a major effect. Tidal dissipation in the magma ocean is described by viscosity. The Moon is entwined with Earth by the negative feedback between thermal blanketing and tidal heating that comes from the temperature-dependent viscosity of the magma ocean. Because of this feedback, the rate that the Moon's orbit evolves is limited by the modest radiative cooling rate of Earth's atmosphere, which in effect tethers the Moon to the Earth. Consequently the Moon's orbit evolves orders of magnitude more slowly than in conventional models. Slow orbital evolution promotes capture by orbital resonances that may have been important in the Earth-Moon system

Earth-Moon system↗

Formation and Recondensation of Complex Organic Molecules During Protostellar Luminosity Outbursts

During the formation of stars, the accretion of surrounding material toward the central object is thought to undergo strong luminosity outbursts followed by long periods of relative quiescence, even at the early stages of star formation when the protostar is still embedded in a large envelope. We investigated the gas-phase formation and recondensation of the complex organic molecules (COMs) di-methyl ether and methyl formate, induced by sudden ice evaporation processes occurring during luminosity outbursts of different amplitudes in protostellar envelopes. For this purpose, we updated a gas-phase chemical network forming COMs in which ammonia plays a key role. The model calculations presented here demonstrate that ion-molecule reactions alone could account for the observed presence of di-methyl ether and methyl formate in a large fraction of protostellar cores without recourse to grain-surface chemistry, although they depend on uncertain ice abundances and gas-phase reaction branching ratios. In spite of the short outburst timescales of about 100 years, abundance ratios of the considered species higher than 10% with respect to methanol are predicted during outbursts due to their low binding energies relative to water and methanol which delay their recondensation during cooling. Although the current luminosity of most embedded protostars would be too low to produce complex organics in the hot-core regions that are observable with current sub-millimetric interferometers, previous luminosity outburst events would induce the formation of COMs in extended regions of protostellar envelopes with sizes increasing by up to one order of magnitude.

astrochemistry↗

Evaporation in the transition region during the gradual phase of flares

Previous observations have revealed that small, but sustained, H-alpha blueshifts occur in flare ribbons during the gradual, or late, phase of flares. These blueshifts suggest that there is a gentle evaporation of chromospheric material throughout the late phase of flares, but ambiguities in the interpretation of H-alpha leave open the possibility that these blueshifts are caused by downflowing, rather than upflowing, material. Using both C IV and soft (3.5-8 keV) X-ray data from SMM observations, evidence is found which supports the interpretation of the H-alpha blueshifts as upflows in the range from 4-12 km/s. The blueshifts are interpreted in terms of the reconnection model proposed by Carmichael (1964). The model produces a sustained energy release through-out the late phase which accounts for the prolonged soft X-ray emission after a flare. This energy release comes from the reconnecting magnetic field above the flare site, and some of the energy is transported along field lines mapping to the chromosphere where it drives chromospheric evaporation.

Schmieder, B.↗

Investigation of particle and vapor wall-loss effects on controlled wood-smoke smog-chamber experiments

Here, smog chambers are extensively used to study processes that drive gas and particle evolution in the atmosphere. A limitation of these experiments is that particles and gas-phase species may be lost to chamber walls on shorter timescales than the timescales of the atmospheric processes being studied in the chamber experiments. These particle and vapor wall losses have been investigated in recent studies of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, but they have not been systematically investigated in experiments of primary emissions from combustion. The semi-volatile nature of combustion emissions (e.g. from wood smoke) may complicate the behavior of particle and vapor wall deposition in the chamber over the course of the experiments due to the competition between gas/particle and gas/wall partitioning. Losses of vapors to the walls may impact particle evaporation in these experiments, and potential precursors for SOA formation from combustion may be lost to the walls, causing underestimations of aerosol yields. Here, we conduct simulations to determine how particle and gas-phase wall losses contributed to the observed evolution of the aerosol during experiments in the third Fire Lab At Missoula Experiment (FLAME III). We use the TwO-Moment Aerosol Sectional (TOMAS) microphysics algorithm coupled with the organic volatility basis set (VBS) and wall-loss formulations to examine the predicted extent of particle and vapor wall losses. We limit the scope of our study to the dark periods in the chamber before photo-oxidation to simplify the aerosol system for this initial study. Our model simulations suggest that over one-third of the initial particle-phase organic mass (41 %) was lost during the experiments, and over half of this particle-organic mass loss was from direct particle wall loss (65 % of the loss) with the remainder from evaporation of the particles driven by vapor losses to the walls (35 % of the loss). We perform a series of sensitivity tests to understand uncertainties in our simulations. Uncertainty in the initial wood-smoke volatility distribution contributes 18 % uncertainty to the final particle-organic mass remaining in the chamber (relative to base-assumption simulation). We show that the total mass loss may depend on the effective saturation concentration of vapor with respect to the walls as these values currently vary widely in the literature. The details of smoke dilution during the filling of smog chambers may influence the mass loss to the walls, and a dilution of ~ 25:1 during the experiments increased particle-organic mass loss by 33 % compared to a simulation where we assume the particles and vapors are initially in equilibrium in the chamber. Finally, we discuss how our findings may influence interpretations of emission factors and SOA production in wood-smoke smog-chamber experiments.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Sub-cloud moist entropy curvature as a predictor for changes in the seasonal cycle of tropical precipitation

Convective Quasi-Equilibrium (CQE) may be a useful framework for understanding the precipitation minus evaporation (P-E) response to CO2-induced warming. To explore this proposition, a suite of aquaplanet simulations with a slab ocean from TRACMIP (the Tropical Rain belts with an Annual cycle and a Continent Model Intercomparison Project) is analyzed. A linear relationship between P-E and the curvature of sub-cloud moist entropy, a marker for the spatial distribution of sub-cloud moist energy and onset of a tropical direct overturning circulation under CQE conditions, is shown to exist across many of the TRACMIP simulations. Furthermore, this linear relationship is a skillful predictor of changes in P-E in response to CO2-induced warming. The curvature metric also shows improvement in predicting P-E changes compared to the simpler method of relating P-E directly to the sub-cloud moist entropy field or a simple ‘wet-get-wetter’ type null hypothesis, especially on seasonal and shorter timescales. Using fixed relative humidity in the curvature metric and sub-cloud moist entropy degrades their ability to predict P-E changes, implying that both temperature and relative humidity changes in the boundary layer are important for characterizing future precipitation changes. To understand why the curvature metric is a skillful predictor of hydrological changes, a moist static energy (MSE) budget analysis is performed, which shows that MSE divergence on sub-daily timescales is well parameterized as a downgradient diffusive process. Additionally, this transient MSE divergence has a similar structure to the curvature term. Assuming that the transient MSE divergence is related to convective activity, these findings suggest that the theoretical underpinning of the linear relationship between the curvature term and P-E resides in cloud processes that both remove spatial gradients of sub-cloud moist entropy and generate precipitation at sub-seasonal and shorter timescales.

aquaplanet simulations↗

Clustering effects in fusion evaporation reactions with light even-even N = Z nuclei. The {sup 24}Mg and {sup 28}Si cases

In the recent years, cluster structures have been evidenced in many ground and excited states of light nuclei [1, 2]. Within the currently ongoing experimental campaign by the NUCL-EX collaboration we have measured the {sup 12}C+{sup 12}C and {sup 14}N+{sup 10}B reactions at 95 MeV and 80 MeV respectively, and compared experimental data corresponding to complete fusion of target and projectile into an excited {sup 24}Mg nucleus to the results of a pure statistical model[3, 4]. We found clear deviations from the statstical model in the decay pattern: emission channels involving multiple α particles are more probable than expected from a purely statistical behavior. To continue the investigation on light systems, we have recentely measured the {sup 16}O+{sup 12}C reaction at three different beam energies, namely E{sub beam} = 90, 110 and 130 MeV.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Study of sub band gap absorption of Sn doped CdSe thin films

The nanocrystalline thin films of Sn doped CdSe at different dopants concentration are prepared by thermal evaporation technique on glass substrate at room temperature. The effect of Sn doping on the optical properties of CdSe has been studied. A decrease in band gap value is observed with increase in Sn concentration. Constant photocurrent method (CPM) is used to study the absorption coefficient in the sub band gap region. Urbach energy has been obtained from CPM spectra which are found to increase with amount of Sn dopants. The refractive index data calculated from transmittance is used for the identification of oscillator strength and oscillator energy using single oscillator model which is found to be 7.7 and 2.12 eV, 6.7 and 2.5 eV for CdSe:Sn 1% and CdSe:Sn 5% respectively.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Internal Physical Features of a Land Surface Model Employing a Tangent Linear Model

The Earth's land surface, including its biomass, is an integral part of the Earth's weather and climate system. Land surface heterogeneity, such as the type and amount of vegetative covering., has a profound effect on local weather variability and therefore on regional variations of the global climate. Surface conditions affect local weather and climate through a number of mechanisms. First, they determine the re-distribution of the net radiative energy received at the surface, through the atmosphere, from the sun. A certain fraction of this energy increases the surface ground temperature, another warms the near-surface atmosphere, and the rest evaporates surface water, which in turn creates clouds and causes precipitation. Second, they determine how much rainfall and snowmelt can be stored in the soil and how much instead runs off into waterways. Finally, surface conditions influence the near-surface concentration and distribution of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The processes through which these mechanisms interact with the atmosphere can be modeled mathematically, to within some degree of uncertainty, on the basis of underlying physical principles. Such a land surface model provides predictive capability for surface variables including ground temperature, surface humidity, and soil moisture and temperature. This information is important for agriculture and industry, as well as for addressing fundamental scientific questions concerning global and local climate change. In this study we apply a methodology known as tangent linear modeling to help us understand more deeply, the behavior of the Mosaic land surface model, a model that has been developed over the past several years at NASA/GSFC. This methodology allows us to examine, directly and quantitatively, the dependence of prediction errors in land surface variables upon different vegetation conditions. The work also highlights the importance of accurate soil moisture information. Although surface variables are predicted imperfectly due to inherent uncertainties in the modeling process, our study suggests how satellite observations can be combined with the model, through land surface data assimilation, to improve their prediction.

Yang, Runhua↗

Deep Convection: Onset, Diurnal Cycle, and Role in Climate Variability and Sensitivity (Final Report)

The ASR SGP testbed for continuous modeling offers new opportunities to improve GCM parameterizations. We conducted an ASR investigation of convective and cloud microphysical processes that used existing ARM data as a testing ground for meaningful approaches to model evaluation and set the stage for later strategic use of the testbed to improve cumulus parameterizations and better understand deep convective cloud feedback. Our research consisted of the following tasks: Diurnal cycle of continental convection Deep convection at the SGP occurs in two forms: Organized mesoscale convection that originates upstream and produces peak precipitation at night; and local shallow convection that develops into deep convection that peaks in late afternoon. Local transitions are a logical next step from the shallow convection that will be the early focus of the testbed. This transition constrains entrainment and cold pools, since GCMs produce a continental rain peak near noon. We studied ARSCL-observed transition cases using the WRF, determined the sources of SCM diurnal cycle errors and made parameterization changes as appropriate. Factors controlling convective detrainment and anvil evolution Convective detrainment is a major source of high cloud ice water content and cloud forcing. The GISS GCM diagnoses a convective updraft speed profile, assumes a particle size distribution (PSD), and uses size-fallspeed relations to determine the fraction of condensate carried upward vs. precipitating. We used SCM case studies for TWP-ICE and MC3E for which vertical velocity has been retrieved to test whether entrainment improvements produce realistic updraft speeds and then improved the updraft microphysics parameterization. We compared detrained ice water contents and fall speeds to ARM and other field experiment data to refine the GCM’s fall speed and PSD assumptions. Role of convective cloud radiative processes in the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) Changes in entrainment and rain evaporation and a cold pool parameterization have produced an MJO in the GISS GCM for the first time and allowed us to reproduce the KAZR dependence of convection depth on humidity during AMIE-Gan. We determined whether recent model changes including cold pools improve or degrade the MJO and made adjustments accordingly.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

TEMPORAL EVOLUTION OF MULTIPLE EVAPORATING RIBBON SOURCES IN A SOLAR FLARE

We present new results from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) showing the dynamic evolution of chromospheric evaporation and condensation in a flare ribbon, with the highest temporal and spatial resolution to date. IRIS observed the entire impulsive phase of the X-class flare SOL2014-09-10T17:45 using a 9.4 s cadence “sit-and-stare” mode. As the ribbon brightened successively at new positions along the slit, a unique impulsive phase evolution was observed for many tens of individual pixels in both coronal and chromospheric lines. Each activation of a new footpoint displays the same initial coronal upflows of up to ∼300 km s{sup −1} and chromospheric downflows up to 40 km s{sup −1}. Although the coronal flows can be delayed by over 1 minute with respect to those in the chromosphere, the temporal evolution of flows is strikingly similar between all pixels and consistent with predictions from hydrodynamic flare models. Given the large sample of independent footpoints, we conclude that each flaring pixel can be considered a prototypical, “elementary” flare kernel.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Replica wormholes and the black hole interior

Recent work has shown how to obtain the Page curve of an evaporating black hole from holographic computations of entanglement entropy. We show how these computations can be justified using the replica trick, from geometries with a spacetime wormhole connecting the different replicas. In a simple model, we study the Page transition in detail by summing replica geometries with different topologies. We compute related quantities in less detail in more complicated models, including JT gravity coupled to conformal matter and the SYK model. Separately, we give a direct gravitational argument for entanglement wedge reconstruction using an explicit formula known as the Petz map; again, a spacetime wormhole plays an important role. We discuss an interpretation of the wormhole geometries as part of some ensemble average implicit in the gravity description.

2D gravity↗

Modeling the Impact of the Organic Aerosol Phase State on Multiphase OH Reactive Uptake Kinetics and the Resultant Heterogeneous Oxidation Timescale of Organic Aerosol in the Amazon Rainforest

Accurate predictions of chemical lifetime, i.e., oxidation timescale and change in the mass of organic aerosols (OAs) in atmospheric models, are critical to quantify the impacts of OA on aerosol–cloud interactions, radiative forcing, and air quality. The heterogeneous oxidation of OA by hydroxyl (OH) radicals is a key process governing OA mass changes during their oxidation. Recently, laboratory observations of the OH uptake coefficient (γ OH ) and heterogeneous reaction rate (k het,OH ) for different OA systems with varying phase states have been combined to develop a new parameterization of γ OH and k het,OH as a function of the OA phase state, i.e., viscosity (η OA ). Here, in this work, we use a recently published viscosity prediction framework to analyze the new γ OH and k het,OH parameterization with a box model. Subsequently, we implement this box model to predict γ OH and k het,OH over the Amazon rainforest in the dry-to-wet transition season with both significant biomass burning and biogenic influences. Relevant parameters within our box model are specified based on detailed regional model simulations over the Amazon using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). η OA is predicted as a function of species volatility, OA composition (including water uptake) along with ambient relative humidity (RH), and temperature. Based on ambient conditions simulated by WRF-Chem over the entire atmospheric column, we use the box model to predict the upper bounds of the heterogeneous oxidation timescale of OA. Based on previous laboratory measurements, we assume that this heterogeneous OH oxidation causes fragmentation (carbon loss) of OA, followed by the evaporation of the fragmented molecules that results in the exponential decay of OA. We predict that the oxidation timescale of OA is ~1 month near the Earth’s surface in the pristine Amazonian background because of low OH concentrations. But OA is oxidized more rapidly within urban and wildfire plumes near the Earth’s surface with an order of magnitude higher OH concentrations compared to the pristine background, causing the simulated oxidation timescale of OA to be much shorter, ~3–4 days. At 3–5 km altitudes where biomass burning OA is predicted to be semisolid, the heterogeneous oxidation timescale is estimated as ~6 days to 3 weeks and decreases with increasing OH concentrations within plumes. We show that the simulated mass loss of OA is strongly size-dependent, where smaller particles oxidize more rapidly compared to larger particles due to their greater per-particle surface area-to-volume ratio. Increasing urbanization and deforestation in the Amazon in the future might increase OH concentrations in the background Amazon, causing faster oxidation of OA. At higher altitudes above liquid clouds, especially in the upper troposphere where temperatures approach ~250 K, future measurements are needed to reduce the uncertainties related to the mass loss of OA at colder temperatures and low relative humidity conditions due to its heterogeneous OH oxidation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Numerically Relevant Timescales in the MG2 Microphysics Model

Climate models rely on parameterizations of a variety of processes in the atmospheric physics, but a common concern is that the temporal resolution is too coarse to consistently resolve the behavior that individual parameterizations are designed to capture. This study examines timescales numerically derived from the Morrison-Gettelman (MG2) microphysics as implemented within the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, version 1 (E3SMv1). Numerically relevant timescales in MG2 are derived by computing the eigenspectrum of its Jacobian. These timescales are found to often be smaller than the default 5 min time step used for MG2. The fast timescales are then heuristically connected to individual microphysics processes. By substepping a few particular rain processes within MG2, the time discretization error for those processes was considerably reduced with minimal additional expense to the overall microphysics. While this improvement has a substantial effect on the target processes and on the vertical distribution of stratiform-derived rain within E3SMv1, the overall model climate is found to not be sensitive to MG2 time step. Here, we hypothesize that this is because the surface climate does not depend strongly on certain process rates, especially MG2's rain evaporation rate.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗